There’s no room at the mall, or at least very little of it, thanks to the strong Bay Area economy that has filled up shopping centers throughout the region.

Vacancies are hovering at around 2 percent or less.

The highest occupancy levels are in the South Bay, which is at 98.2 percent for outdoor shopping centers that typically are smaller than major regional malls, said John Cumbelich, of Cumbelich and Associates, a Walnut Creek-based commercial realty brokerage that specializes in retail properties. Similar North Bay malls are at 97.7 percent occupancy, the San Francisco-San Mateo region is at 97 percent and the East Bay is at 96.5 percent.

“It makes sense that the South Bay is the strongest, because you have such a job boom from high tech in Santa Clara County,” said Michael Messinger, broker owner with San Jose-based Meacham Oppenheimer Corfac, a commercial realty brokerage that specializes in retail. “The South Bay also has more disposable income than other areas.”

But tight vacancy rates can also prompt landlords to charge more for rent, squeezing out some retailers when their leases come up for renewal and forcing them to relocate.

“The low vacancy drives up the demand for space and that can be challenging because you are staring at increases in rent,” said Davis Bennett, director of real estate with Great Clips, a Minnesota-based hair salon franchise chain. “It’s a constant struggle. Landlords want merchants to be successful, but landlords are also in the business of collecting rent.”

Still, it’s not cut-and-dried that a merchant will immediately choose to defect from a mall when facing higher rents, or that a shopping center owner will immediately force out retailers in a quest for more lease income.

That’s because it costs a lot of money for a retailer to relocate and it’s expensive for a landlord to replace a tenant, including broker commissions and a loss of rental income while spaces are empty.

Despite the robust retail landscape, some clouds have gathered over the store and mall sector, even in the Bay Area, experts warn.

“Some consolidations are occurring, which will create some vacancies,” Messinger said. “We are not seeing requests for expansions by mainstream retailers. Most of the interest is coming from food retailers or small personal service retailers. We are seeing some writing on the wall that growth could slow.”

The warning signs have materialized primarily due to the invasion of online commerce, whose vanguard is led by Amazon and eBay. The shift to online retail sales — some of it fueled by retailers’ own websites — has unleashed some downsizing among brick-and-mortar stores.

Staples has been closing stores and even sought to merge with Office Depot, a combination the stores called off this month amid antitrust scrutiny. The merger almost certainly triggered store closures, and location shutdowns might still happen even without a marriage of the two retailers.

Best Buy has closed some stores and reduced the size of others. Sears and Macy’s are closing dozens of stores. Wal-Mart has decided to shut more than 100 stores, including one in San Jose and one in Oakland.

Still, many regional malls in the Bay Area are flourishing. These include malls such as Santana Row in San Jose, Stanford Shopping Center in Palo Alto, Hillsdale Shopping Center in San Mateo, Stoneridge Shopping Center in Pleasanton and Broadway Plaza in Walnut Creek.

Westfield Valley Fair is 94 percent occupied, said Carolyn Zweifel, a spokeswoman for the mall. The shopping center has deliberately left 6 percent of the spaces vacant to accommodate a major expansion that will include a new three-story Bloomingdale’s department store and a new Showcase ICON cinema. Bloomingdale’s will be a 150,000-square-foot anchor, joining an existing Macy’s and Nordstrom.

Both Nordstrom and Nordstrom Rack say they are drawn to the best locations, even if that means being located with a host of other top-tier merchants.

“We like competition,” said Dan Evans, a spokesman for Seattle-based Nordstrom. “We think it helps us raise our game. Ultimately, the customer benefits from more and better options.”

Santana Row, across Stevens Creek Boulevard from Valley Fair, is 98 percent leased, said Collette Navarette, a spokeswoman for Federal Realty, the principal owner and developer of Santana Row.

“The momentum at Santana Row is extremely strong,” Navarette said.

A Kendra Scott fashion jewelry store, Smitten Ice Cream and Tacolicious are among the merchants that will be opening by the end of the summer, Navarette said.

Some malls in the Bay Area reported that their customer traffic remained strong, even months after the holiday shopping season of 2015.

“Retailers are not only opening up shop but they are staying long-term at Stoneridge,” said Betsy Edwards, director of marketing and business development with Stoneridge Shopping Center.

Stoneridge landed new retailers recently such as Uniqlo, White House Black Market, and an expansion of The Men’s Wearhouse. In recent years, Stoneridge gained lease deals with other high profile retailers such as Pink and Lululemon, Edwards said.

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